It Smells of the Lamp

I have parents that haven been a quilting duo! My dad, the engineer mind in the family, cuts the fabric squares. My mom, the crafter, sews them together, then Dad cuts them again to get them perfectly square. Each square gets a heavy ironing before it’s sewn again. The picture you see here is that of the pieces being laid out to see where each one should go. After placing and replacing, they will take this up very carefully, row after row and stack it the way it needs to be sewn together. Of course after the batting and backing are put behind it there’s all the hand quilting to be done. Whoa! Many, many hours go into the making of a quilt! However, when it’s all finished it’s not only warm and cozy, it is a piece of art!

This week as I was studying Proverbs 31 I read verse 18 –

She perceiveth that her merchandise is good; her candle goeth not out by night.

As I studied the last part of this verse, I learned that it was often said of an elaborate piece (of art, needlework, a literary work, etc), “It smells of the lamp.” That means that there were many long hours put into making that piece – so much that it even went into the night hours. You could tell by looking at it that it wasn’t done quickly; it took much labor and effort.

When you understand the hours of labor that a quilt takes you appreciate it all the more! When I look at the quilts that my parents have made for each of their children and grandchildren I am reminded of the sacrifice of time and labor that it took to make them. They “smell of the lamp.”

While I’ve pondered that phrase for the last several days, the cry of my heart to the Lord is that my prayer life would be what “smells of the lamp.” More and more I understand how weak I am and unable to do anything without God’s enablement and power in my life. Oh, that I would wake up in the morning with the burden to pray, go into the noon hour with prayer on my lips, enter the evening with a continued heart-cry to my God, and go to bed at night and be awakened to “turn on the lamp.”

Nothing else will go lacking if prayer is the center of my life. For when I am praying my needs are met, my steps directed, my thoughts established, my heart made right, and my burdens lifted. What a beautiful thing a prayer life like that would be.